Talisaynon is Century Tuna Superbods Ageless finalist

CEBU, Philippines — At 43 years old, Romela Gurrea Nacar is at her fittest.

After 15 years in the skies as a flight attendant and two decades of working abroad, the Talisay City native is back in Cebu for good.

What’s keeping her busy? Just being the only Cebuana to compete in this year’s Century Tuna Superbods Ageless 2018 search for the next fitspiration.

The bi-annual event scoured the country for the next fitness ambassadors via go-sees in Davao, Cebu and Manila. For the first time, the competition goes ageless, and has two categories with 20 finalists (10 male, 10 female) per category. The summer spectacle is divided into the Superbod category (19-37 years old), and Ageless category (28-50 years old) to prove that any man and woman can be limitless regardless of age.

Growing up on the heavier side, Romela was raised with the mentality that the more rice you ate, the healthier you’d become. But she knew that was not completely true and had to do something to avoid health complications in the future. So to the gym she went.

“It’s always been a goal for me to start hitting the gym and really focus on keeping fit. I wanted to be like Cameron Diaz. I don’t care what anyone says, to me she’s the sexiest and I want to be like her. So I did my research and I hit the gym. There I encountered people who were serious about their goals too and we became friends. Soon I was learning from them,” Romela says of her fitness journey which began about five years ago.

Contrary to popular fitness and diet fads, Romela couldn’t stress enough that there really isn’t any shortcut to getting your ideal body. It took months for Romela to see results. She says it has to be a well-planned and balanced combination of working out and eating the right food.

Romela now wants to inspire others, starting with her family for them to follow her stride and make health and fitness their priority.

“I want to show other people, and share and contribute. I want to influence my family. My friends, people who know me ask what I’ve been up to and they want to go to the gym with me, they want to train with me. And it takes so much commitment. When someone asks me about what they should do, and how they should start, it lights me up,” Romela quips.

To stick to your goal, Romela advises that it helps to become a creature of habit. At 5:30 a.m., Romela gets up and gives herself a burst of cardio by running for 40 minutes in her weighted jacket. When she gets home, she prepares a healthy breakfast, mostly comprising of protein-rich foods like eggs, steamed or grilled fish and chicken. Romela still eats rice for lunch and even desserts. She also has cheat days, but sticking to your goal is just as important as setting one.

“It takes so much commitment. I just remember three D’s—Discipline, Dedication, and Determination. I also remember the reason why I’m doing this because the journey doesn’t end when you reach your goal body. It’s for life. You can’t just reach your goal and say ‘Okay, I’ll go back to eating all of the unhealthy food and slack around.’ It defeats the whole purpose,” Romela reasons.

For Romela, keeping fit and healthy is not being loyal to your goal, but being loyal to yourself. Your body is one that you’re stuck with for the rest of your life, might as well do your best to keep it up and running.

“I have a love-hate relationship with food. I realized, what is the joy in feeding yourself for your entire life, if every time you see yourself in the mirror, you’re not happy with what you see. It’s a choice that I made for myself. What’s temporary tasty food in your mouth when in the long run, your health is in danger? Health is wealth. Don’t wait until you’re older to start working out because you have rheumatism, or osteoporosis, or cholesterol, and blood pressure problems. It’s the feeling of fulfillment deep inside you, that yes, my hard work paid off. It’s rewarding,” Romela muses.

With that, Romela was sure she was cut out as someone worthy of the Ageless title.

Romela had been browsing her social media timeline when she saw that the Century Tuna Superbods Ageless go-see was coming to Cebu in two days. Despite having zero pageantry experience, Romela was confident that she knew what the competition stood for apart from the pageantry element and told herself she had nothing to lose.

“I said, why don’t I join? Just for the fun of it. If I lose, I lose, if I win, that’s a bonus. It’s something that I haven’t done yet. So everything just happened so fast. The next thing I knew I was in Manila, I was one of the finalists,” Romela recalls.

Despite her innate go-getter attitude, Romela admits that she is the shy type.

“I do have my flaws that I’m not so happy about that I need to conquer. I am raw, I have no experience unlike my co-Ageless contestants who are TV hosts, with pageant backgrounds. I have to work on my public speaking. I get nervous when all the attention is directed towards me. I feel like the camera is not friendly with me. You know you’re the worst critic when it comes to yourself. I don’t know how to find my angles,” she says.

“I’ve conquered many things, but there are other things that I want to conquer.  How will I put this fear behind me? That’s why I put myself in this challenge to see how far I can go. It’s always been in me—this go-getter attitude. I really make sure to do my best in something, and think of ways to somehow get it. It has to do with the law of attraction too. You aim for a certain goal and you make your way to it. Think about it and remind yourself of your goal and you can be anywhere you want to be. You can be limitless, that’s what I would like to share to others.”

After working away from home for 20 years and seeing the world, Romela is now a US-certified professional micro-blading artist. Being told that she has a good set of hands, Romela now does people’s eyebrows and is planning to put up her own micro-blading business

“I’m new, I feel a bit lost. People in Cebu might not know who I am because I worked abroad. They might feel like I’m not homegrown. It might be hard to invite them to support me. But I’ll do my best, and I’ll survive this. I didn’t know who to ask to help me with personality development, fashion walk and projection. I didn’t have time so I learned by myself. And I’m just so glad that when I went to the go-see, I met this girl who is a model and I somehow got her number. She agreed and was more than happy to help me out. I’m thankful that there are people who are so willing to offer help because it’s different when you have managers, and the resources and the people to help you,” Romela quips.

Romela adds that apart from working on her micro-blading business, she will still maintain her social media presence and continue to share her workout and diet tips to anyone who wishes to start with the fit and healthy path.

“You will feel tired in the middle. It gets exhausting. But go ahead and put on your shoes. Once those shoes are on you, just run. The next thing you know, you’ve been running for 30 minutes. Don’t be intimidated, you can ask for help and tips. There’s always a first time, you always have to start with baby steps. Make it a habit, and the next thing you know you’re doing it daily with no problem. If you say that you’re old, you have five kids, it’s too late for you, it’s not.”

With P500,00, a chance of training with Star Magic and a Chevrolet Trax at stake, the Century Tuna Superbods Ageless 2018 competition began early March, where the finalists learned healthy recipes and workout tips, as well as personality development lessons through diet, workout, and ramp workshops.

You can help Romela win People’s Choice by voting for her online. You can like, comment, and share the candidates’ Vote for Me video on the Century Tuna Superbods official Facebook page, or post about your favorite candidate on Twitter and Instagram with their official hashtags.

The Century Tuna Superbods Ageless 2018 finals night will be held on April 12 at the Cove in Okada Manila.